New facilities and updated displays will allow the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre to accommodate larger numbers of visitors.
The University of Manitoba’s Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre allows the public to learn more about the production, processing and distribution of food.
Centre Manager Myrna Grahn says a brand new dairy barn and classroom will accommodate more school groups, a number of new exhibits have been added including a live free flowing beehive and a virtual reality exhibit and several exhibits have been updated to make them more interactive.
We had about four thousand students and teachers that came through September to August last year. About 60 percent would have been from the Winnipeg area, 40 percent from rural Manitoba. The ages would have been the middle years. We had a high representation from the grade four, grade five as well as quite a large number of grade 10, 11 that are taking geography and home economics and sustainable agriculture type topics, so a really good representation between middle years and senior years. Then we had about another, I would say, three thousand visitors, the general public coming.
We have programs for seniors to come or grandparents day and a lot of different targeted special family events take place throughout the summer and into the fall on Saturdays so we’ve been attracting a lot more companies as well and business to hold their meetings here or training sessions. We’re trying to get a really diverse audience that visits the farm and food discovery centre each year.
~ Myrna Grahn, University of Manitoba
Grahn says, with the addition of the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba Dairy Discovery and Learning Complex, this year will be a learning curve.
She says the centre will be able to accommodate duplicate classes so a class can arrive at the Farm and Food Discovery Centre and another can arrive at the Discovery learning Centre and have more students come through.
